Bukit Aman Ultra Run 84km

The Singapore Sundown marathon sure did a change to runners time of training. While most are sleeping or going clubbing on a saturday night, a few of us gather at Bukit Aman carpark to run. Some ran 30km, 40, and even 60km.

Ngae and myself opted for 84km. Shine, Victor, Raymond Ng, and my brother did a marathon. Raymond Hee, Maryann, and Siok Bee did a 30km. Mohan, brought some flashys strips of paper for safety purpose. Some wore blinking red led lights.

Soon, we were off. The route is pretty safe at night, saved for some Mat Rempits, which for whatever reason choose to drive this route. Maybe it's to evade police roadblocks. The first 21km was a fast affair. Everyone could easily consistently put on a fast pace.

The second leg of 21km was on a slower pace. I have to wait for my brother at times, since it's dark and it's better to look out for each other just in case. He haven't race a 10km, or 21km, or for that matter a marathon. But he managed to eke out 41km. Pretty impressive considering I had personally train 30km at least before trying a marathon.

As the second loop ended, Shine, Victor, and Ray Ng headed for home, leaving only Ngae and me, to do 84km. The lack of sleep didn't much cause a problem, but I have slowed considerably, and the usual pain starts to creep in. Ngae's pace was fast, so I had to catch up.

By the third loop, the sky lighten up, and some usual runners were doing their rounds. It amazes me, that some folks start running at 4:30 in the morning. I managed to reach Ngae on the third loop at the government complex, and told him I'll do the dawn prayer at the Masjid Wilayah. Later, I met Mohan, still running, I believe which is his 60km run. Unbelievable as it seems, but we had ran since midnite.

Coming back from the third loop, I saw Ngae going out again for the 4th loop. I headed to the gerai at the carpark to get some iced coffee and a pau. I desperately needed some caffeine to get rid of sleepiness.

The fourth loop is probably the hardest. It's hard because of the heat, and humidity, and also lack of wind. Besides, if my legs could speak, they would plead to stop. As I ran the last loop, all I could think was, the runners doing the 84km ultra better be more than ready for this punishing distance. You have to keep on running, when you have nothing left. Keep on moving when no one is cheering you on. Keep on placing your feet in front, even if your feet is in pain. This is what ultra running is all about. Its' meaning is deeper than just running.

I caught up with Ngae before going for the hills to hartamas. He was in some pain in the leg, and had opted to return. Although he didn't go for the distance, but understandably, this is not an organized event, so it could be dangerous to keep on running with injury.

The next few hill climbs is one of the worst scenario to run in. 6 hill climbs in hartamas might look easy if you ran it once, but try that 4 times, and it becomes monumental hard. It was blazing hot as well, that I didn't want to look ahead to where I am running, instead, just focusing a few meters ahead.

As I reached the carpark finishing, it was already noon. My time was 11:49:55, which was well above the 10 hours we tried to do. However there is another dimension to ultras, which is survivability. It's important you can survive the race. If you can survive all the challenges thrown to you, you can finish the race.

In the meantime, I'll put off some running and do more swimming in the coming week.